Top ten best beach experiences 2008

In no particular order:

1. Playing "doodle guess" (like Pictionary but simpler and rowdier) with all 4 kids and my mom, who was a very bad sport. Mitch's strategy: scribble on the paper and say "YES!" to the first guess.

2. The tidal pool on the last day (aka the "baby ocean"). Paige was in splish splash heaven.

3. Watching Owen and Mitch driving kiddie go-karts. Owen = old man driver (complete with side swipes of parked cars) Mitch = bad ass teenager (complete with turns on two-wheels). The attendant feared for his life.

4. The filet mignon. Who cares if they were bought on the "sell by" date and lived a long life in my parents' deep freezer. Against all odds, they were freakin' delicious.

5. Owen asking my dad for his change at Dairy Queen after being told he could pick something under $4. He did pick a $2 item after all. The kid just wanted what was coming to him!

6. Owen loosing his first tooth. He was mighty brave about it, so the tooth fairy was generous.

7. My 5-year-old niece's submission to a round of Apples to Apples (such a fun game). The adjective was "haunting." Her card said "kittens."

8. Mitch's refusing to call my brother-in-law anything but "Dave." Not Uncle David, not even just plain David. Just "Dave."

9. The Orange Blossom Bakery vs. Gingerbread House Bakery taste test. Apple fritters went to Orange Blossom. Butterscotch cookies went to Gingerbread House.

10. My mom wearing the kids' hooded fish towel. While having a serious conversation during which no one was able to take her seriously. (She was trying to keep sand out of her ears on a windy day.) I so wish I had a picture.

Top Ten Reasons Paige is Lucky She's Cute

1. She doesn't sleep enough.

2. When I carry her, she always looks for, finds, and tries to tear off the ugly, hangy mole on the back of my arm.

3. When she is finished eating, she bats spoonfuls of baby food away from her, slinging sweet potatoes on the wall, the cat, and her father.

4. Since learning to crawl she is constantly on the hunt for objects dangerous, gross, and/or inedible to gum.

5. While nursing, she pinches the side of my breast, catching tiny little folds of skin between her thumb and pointer finger and producing a sensation almost as pleasant as bamboo under fingernails.

6. At the same time, she plants both feet on my belly and bounces herself on my gut, thereby socking me in the stomach and wrenching my nipple upward every time she bounces.

7. She ruins more outfits with her man-sized poops than I have Dreft to rescue them.

8. If I'm sitting on the floor with her and simultaneously trying to do anything else (like, oh, I don't know...work on the computer, not that I do THAT all that often) she will hang on/climb on me relentlessly, grabbing onto my hair to restore her balance if she stumbles.

9. She wants the paci, she doesn't want the paci, she wants the paci, she doesn't want the paci.

10. And...she doesn't sleep enough.

Top Ten Idiosyncrasies of the Big Brothers

Top Ten Idiosyncrasies of the Big Brothers

ONE: Owen's fear of the beeping coffee maker, which causes him to hide on the stoop in the carport every morning, hands over ears, until the coffee has finished brewing.

TWO: Mitch's love affair with Dee Dee, which is not his name for his favorite blanket, but his name for the TAG on his favorite blanket, which Owen accidentally tore off yesterday and about which Mitch bawled until it was sewed back on.

THREE: Mitch's love of shoes, and his belief that putting on a pair of shoes means one is "going to work."

FOUR: Owen's obsession with "driving home a different way" and taking new exits off the Beltline.

FIVE: Mitch's use of the word "soaking" in place of the word "very," as in, "I'm soaking tired" or "I'm soaking dirty."

SIX: Both boys' insistence on yelling hello to anyone who walks by our house, regardless of the person's appearance (remember, we live very close to downtown), and their persistence if said person does not respond immediately. They continue calling hello until he does answer, causing John and I to hide behind the van and hiss at them to stop it before we get mugged.

SEVEN: Mitch's embarrassing tendency to ask complete strangers for their keys and/or cellphones.

EIGHT: Mitch's recitation of the ABC's, which includes, "H, I, K, K and a little P."

NINE: Owen's talents as an emcee/sports announcer/commercial voice over-er. He does play-by-play for our driveway games of baseball, hockey, and basketball, and both boys play "infomercial" in the sandbox, using buckets and shovels as the products they are demonstrating.

TEN: For both, favorite snack = two pieces of plain bread. Wouldja like some water with that?

Habits of the 7 Month Old

Ten Irritating Habits of the 7 Month Old

1. Blowing pureed pears into the face of her mother
2. Squeezing and twisting noses
3. While being changed, placing a cleanly socked foot into a freshly soiled diaper
4. Spitting out the pacifier and screaming for the replacement of the pacifier 6,324 times a night
5. Pulling off sun hats and tossing them in the pool
6. Grabbing, yanking, and dislodging fistfuls of hair
7. Rolling across the floor to find and attempt to eat the one dangerously tiny object that her mother missed when clearing the floor of dangerously tiny objects
8. Lunging for anything that crosses her line of vision, especially when being held
9. Diving face first into ice cream cones that her father carelessly holds within face's reach
10. Arching her back at the indignity of being placed in the carseat or highchair.
    

Ten Endearing Habits of the 7 Month Old

1. The nursing purr
2. Rocking and bouncing when someone sings "You Make me Feel Like Dancing"
3. Banging gleefully on her xylophone
4. Belly laughing
5. Giving strangers a tiny grin, then bashfully burying her face in her mother's shoulder
6. Flailing arms and legs with joy when daddy comes into the room
7. Raspberries
8. The nursing look: grateful, peaceful, trusting eyes
9. Stroking and holding her brothers' faces
10. Learning to lean out and reach for mommy from someone else's arms